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The article focuses on how the media shapes the attitude and reaction of people towards the issue of rape. It discusses how the media spread distorted false messages regarding a problem that reached epidemic dimensions by exploring various high profile sexual assault cases. It presents examples in which news reports referred women reporting rape as the accuser rather than as victims and when stories mention the term "gray rape" when interrogating the truthfulness of the claim. The authors outline ways how the online media outlets could use their platform to improve the protection and safety of rape victims instead of proliferating the impact of negative reports.

An essay is presented on novelist Philip Roth, who was regarded by literary critic Irving Howe as a mean-spirited satirist. It proposes that Howe was more or less right about the shortcomings of Roth's 1972 essay that was published in the "Commentary." The author believes that the conception of the fictitious character Nathan Zuckerman as autobiographical lens in the 1983 novel "The Anatomy Lesson," opened a dialectical space in Roth's fiction.

This article discusses the research of author and literary critic Edmund White who wishes to answer the question if gay men can truly be friends with one another. White has researched literature to explore gay culture, the dynamics of friendship, and issues pertaining to the prejudice found in such mind sets and questions. White writes about the conversion of lovers to friends or friends to lovers in his books "Forgetting Elena," "The Married Man," and "Fanny: A Life."

Aims: To examine risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in relation to alcohol in a cohort of Australian Aborigines. Methods: In 1988-1989, alcohol intake, drinking pattern, and beverage preference were elicited by interviewer-administered questionnaire in Western Australian Aborigines (258 men, 256 women) and cardiovascular outcomes ascertained through linkage to mortality and hospital admission records to 2002. Results: In proportional hazards models, risk for CHD, relative to lifetime abstainers, was significantly increased in ex-drinkers [Hazard ratio (HR) 2.29, 95% CL 1.23, 4.27], those drinking 41-60 g/day in men or 21-40 g/day in women (HR 2.80, 95% CL 1.04, 7.53), and those drinking >150 g/day for men or >100 g/day for women (HR 2.25, 95% CL 1.03, 4.90) with a J-shaped relationship. Low-to-moderate drinkers had lower waist girth, exercised more, and had a lower prevalence of overweight and smoking than at-risk drinkers. A preference for wine was associated with lower HR (0.28, 95% CL 0.10, 0.95). With CVD, only ex-drinkers showed significantly increased risk (HR 1.87, 95% CL 1.20, 2.91). Conclusions: More favourable health-related behaviours in low-to-moderate drinkers suggest that lower risk could be mediated by lifestyle, as proposed in other populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To examine risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in relation to alcohol in a cohort of Australian Aborigines. Methods: In 1988–1989, alcohol intake, drinking pattern, and beverage preference were elicited by interviewer-administered questionnaire in Western Australian Aborigines (258 men and 256 women) and cardiovascular outcomes ascertained through linkage to mortality and hospital admission records to 2002. Results: In proportional hazards models, risk for CHD, relative to lifetime abstainers, was significantly increased in ex-drinkers [Hazard ratio (HR), 2.29; 95% confidence intervals (CI), 1.23–4.27], those drinking 41–60 g/day in men or 21–40 g/day in women (HR 2.80; 95% CI, 1.04–7.53) and those drinking >150 g/day for men or >100 g/day for women (HR, 2.25; 95% CI, 1.03–4.90) with a J-shaped relationship. Low-to-moderate drinkers had lower waist girth, exercised more and had a lower prevalence of overweight and smoking than at-risk drinkers. A preference for wine was associated with lower HR (0.28; 95% CI, 0.10–0.95). With CVD, only ex-drinkers showed significantly increased risk (HR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.20–2.91). Conclusions: More favourable health-related behaviours in low-to-moderate drinkers suggest that lower risk could be mediated by lifestyle, as proposed in other populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the characterization of vagrants in the poems `Beggars' and `Resolution and Independence' by William Wordsworth. Depiction of the relationship between ethics and political action; Representation of the psychological economy of charity and almsgiving in `Beggars'; Confusion between poet and leech-gatherer in `Resolution and Independence.'

Argues that an uncannily callous Jesus becomes the figurative center of Mark's formulation of an ethics of responsiveness. Significance of Abraham's bargaining with Yahweh on behalf of the people of Sodom; Reading dilemma in the Gospel of Mark; Problem with historical explanations or theological rationalizations of Jesus' behavior; One of the more remarkable examples of Yahweh's whimsicality.

Presents a study which examined urinary epinephrine and cortisol hormone output in an Australian Aboriginal community. Epinephrine and cortisol excretion rated association with behavior in the community; Detailed information on the experiments conducted; Analysis of the data collected; Results of this study.

In an attempt to understand the reasons for the high incidence of diabetes among Australian Aborigines when they urbanise, we measured a number of metabolic parameters in a group of Aborigines from the Kimberley region of northwest Australia three months after they reverted temporarily to their traditional hunter‐gatherer lifestyle, and then again three months after they returned to urban.life. These Aborigines had an abnormally high insulin response to glucose which was reduced, but not to normal levels, by reverting temporarily to their traditional lifestyle. These metabolic changes are consistent with the development of diabetes in the urban setting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Urinary cortisol and adrenaline excretion rates were measured in three Australian Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley region in the north-west of the country. The three communities, Derby, Kalumburu and Kupungarri, differ in size and remoteness and some lifestyle parameters. Cortisol excretion rate is associated with age and urine flow rate, but there is no association with smoking or the consumption of alcohol. All three communities show very high cortisol excretion rates compared to a sample of UK (Oxford) residents and there are also differences between the three communities. Adrenaline excretion rate also shows associations with age and urine flow rate, but not with smoking. Aboriginal people in the Kimberley region excrete adrenaline at a slightly higher rate than that found in Oxford, which itself is high by world standards. There are no marked differences between communities in their adrenaline excretion rates. Alcohol drinkers in Derby, where alcohol is freely available, have higher adrenaline output than non-drinkers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We have investigated plasma glucose and insulin responses to 75 g glucose in 12 young, full-blood Aborigines before and after 2 weeks on a diet derived almost exclusively from seafood. This diet was low in fat, extremely low in carbohydrate and high in protein and was representative of the diet consumed by these people in their traditional lifestyle during those times of the year when very little vegetable food was available. After an initial weight loss which was probably due to glycogen, salt and water losses associated with the dietary change, body weights stabilised by the end of the first week. Total triglyceride concentrations in fasting plasma fell from 1.32±0.33 before the diet to 0.61±0.08 mmol/l after it, while total cholesterol, which was low initially, did not fall significantly. There was a small but significant improvement in glucose tolerance and a small reduction in insulin response indicating that the Aborigines had adapted effectively to the very low carbohydrate-high protein diet in the 2 week period. The insulin response to 50 g protein also fell significantly after the seafood diet. The results suggest that glucose tolerance is not determined solely by the carbohydrate content of the diet, but rather by the availability of carbohydrate either directly or indirectly in precursor form as dietary protein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have investigated plasma glucose and immunoreactive insulin responses to 75-g oral glucose in lean, young, full-blood Aboriginal men from urban and rural communities and made comparisons with age- and weight-matched Caucasoids. Fasting glucose concentrations were lower in the rural Aborigines than in the urban Aborigines or the Caucasoids. Plasma glucose concentrations 2 h postprandially were significantly higher in both Aboriginal groups (urban 6.7±0.6 mmol/l, rural 6.4±0.4 mmol/l) than in the Caucasoids (5.0±0.3 mmol/ l). Insulin responses in the two Aboriginal groups were almost identical and 50% higher than in the Caucasoids. We also investigated glucose tolerance and plasma lipids in 67 full-blood Aborigines living in an isolated rural community. Only three people (two men and one woman) had diabetes while a further eight (six men and two women) had impaired glucose tolerance. Fasting plasma cholesterol concentrations did not increase with age and were significantly lower in the rural Aboriginal community than in either the urban Aborigines or the Caucasoids. These results suggest that elevations in fasting cholesterol and glucose concentrations are lifestyle-associated, but that mild impairment of glucose tolerance and high insulin response in the Aborigines may be inherited metabolic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]